Shopifreaks
Weekly e-commerce industry newsletter curated by Paul Drecksler, focusing on Shopify ecosystem news and global retail tech trends. Each issue of Shopifreaks rounds up the top headlines – from platform updates to notable brand launches – and delivers them with brief insights and wit for busy store owners
TrueLayer Hires Satispay and Klarna Veteran as Head of Ecommerce to Scale Pay by Bank in Europe
TrueLayer has appointed Stefano De Lollis, a veteran who grew Satispay’s ecommerce arm and held senior roles at Klarna’s Sofort Banking, as Head of Ecommerce. The move comes as TrueLayer’s transaction volumes are nearly doubling year‑over‑year. Its Pay by Bank solution is now live at checkout for Amazon, eBay, Ryanair and Just Eat across Europe. De Lollis will steer the company’s ecommerce strategy to capture merchants shifting to direct account‑to‑account payments.
EBay Appoints HomeAway Co-Founder Brian Sharples to Its Board as the Platform Shifts Its Marketplace Strategy
eBay announced the addition of Brian Sharples, co‑founder and former CEO of vacation‑rental platform HomeAway, to its board of directors, expanding the board to 12 members. Sharples also chairs GoDaddy and has board experience at Yelp, Kayak, Avalara and RetailMeNot,...
Tubi Launches Scene Sense Contextual Targeting and Exclusive Amazon DSP Package at NewFronts
Tubi unveiled Scene Sense, a scene‑level contextual targeting engine that analyzes visual cues, tone and sentiment to serve relevant display ads when viewers pause content, alongside new carousel, trivia and poll pause‑ad formats. It also introduced Tubi Priority Access, an...
Brex Lands OpenAI as a Customer to Manage Its Global Corporate Spend and Financial Operations
OpenAI has selected Brex’s AI‑native corporate card and spend‑management platform to run its global financial operations. The deal incorporates Brex’s new ChatGPT integration, enabling finance teams to query expense data and policy details directly in a chat interface. Brex reports...
Flipkart CFO Sriram Venkataraman Steps Down as Walmart-Owned E-Commerce Firm Prepares for India IPO
Flipkart announced that group CFO Sriram Venkataraman will step down after seven years, with marketplace CFO Ravi Iyer taking over on an interim basis. The change occurs as the Walmart‑owned e‑commerce giant prepares for an Indian IPO, having recently moved...
Roblox Adds Former Activision Blizzard CFO Dennis Durkin to Its Board of Directors
Roblox announced the appointment of Dennis Durkin, former CFO and President of Emerging Businesses at Activision Blizzard, as an independent director. Durkin will sit on the Audit and Compliance Committee as well as the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee. He...
Pentagon Flags Anthropic’s Foreign Workforce as a National Security Risk to Dismiss Company’s Lawsuit
The Pentagon filed a declaration labeling Anthropic’s employment of foreign nationals, especially Chinese citizens, as a national‑security risk under China’s National Intelligence Law. The agency argues this risk exceeds prior concerns about domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons, and it contrasts...
Depop Faces Class Action over Hidden Marketplace Fees Weeks Before Its $1.2B eBay Acquisition Closes
Depop is facing a California federal class‑action lawsuit over its mandatory marketplace fee that is disclosed only at checkout. The suit alleges the hidden $1.55 fee on a $17 purchase violates the state’s Honest Pricing Law, which bans drip pricing...
Mercari Launches Limited-Time Tiered Fee Discount Beta for High-Volume Sellers Through May 2026
Mercari has launched a limited‑time beta fee‑discount program for high‑volume sellers, running from March 19 to May 14, 2026. Sellers are placed into tiered discount levels based on their cumulative sales during the eight weeks preceding the program, with tier status displayed via...
Shopify POS Smart Grid Now Lets Merchants Select Discount Codes From a Dropdown Instead of Typing Them Manually
Shopify has upgraded its POS Smart Grid editor to include a dropdown menu for selecting discount codes when building Discount tiles. The change replaces the previous free‑text field, which was vulnerable to typos and mismatched codes. Each tile now pulls...
EBay Beta Testing Video Ads in Promoted Listings Priority Cost-per-Click Placements Starting in Australia
eBay has begun beta‑testing a video‑enabled version of its Promoted Listings Priority in Australia. The feature allows sellers to attach 5‑ to 60‑second videos that auto‑play in eligible ad placements, reverting to static images where video isn’t supported. Pricing remains...
Pentagon Begins Replacing Anthropic’s AI Tools in Military Operations with Alternative Models
The Pentagon is actively replacing Anthropic’s Claude model with alternative large‑language models, a transition Cameron Stanley says will take more than a month. OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI have already secured clearance for classified work, while Google is rolling out...
Shopify Launches Agentic Storefronts in ChatGPT as OpenAI Shifts Away From Native Instant Checkout
Shopify announced that its new "agentic storefronts" will be available inside ChatGPT later this month. The feature taps the Shopify Catalog to syndicate product information across AI assistants while preserving Shopify’s standard checkout and payment processes. OpenAI’s recent decision to...
XAI Co-Founders Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang Depart as Elon Musk Rebuilds Company Foundations
Elon Musk's AI startup xAI saw two of its original co‑founders, Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang, leave the company this month. Their exits reduce the founding team from eleven members to just two remaining. Musk announced that xAI will be...
AT&T Commits $250 Billion Through 2030 to Build Essential Infrastructure for Artificial Intelligence
AT&T announced a $250 billion capital spending plan through 2030 to expand its fiber and 5G networks, specifically targeting the bandwidth and latency needs of artificial‑intelligence workloads. The company aims to become the foundational network layer for the emerging AI economy,...
XAI Hires Senior Cursor Leaders to Boost Coding Capabilities Following String of Executive Exits
Elon Musk’s xAI announced the recruitment of Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg, both former heads of product at the code‑generation startup Cursor. The duo will spearhead efforts to enhance xAI’s programming‑oriented capabilities, reporting directly to Musk. Their hiring comes after...
State Department Shifts StateChat to OpenAI After a Presidential Ban on Anthropic
The U.S. State Department has replaced Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 with OpenAI’s GPT‑4.1 for its internal StateChat platform following a presidential directive that bans Anthropic models from federal use. The switch also rolls the chatbot’s training‑data cutoff back to May 2024, undoing a...
Converted Acquires Egyptian Fashion E-Commerce Platform Mitcha to Expand Its AI Advertising Ecosystem
Converted, an AI‑driven advertising technology firm focused on emerging markets, has acquired Egyptian fashion e‑commerce platform Mitcha. The acquisition brings Mitcha’s network of local designers and shoppers into Converted’s suite, accelerating the launch of its new Converted Orders product that...
Coupang Builds Stablecoin Legal Team to Issue Digital Assets and Save up to $200M in Annual Fees
Coupang announced it is hiring an in‑house legal team dedicated to stablecoin issuance and regulatory compliance. The initiative will enable the e‑commerce giant to embed blockchain‑based digital assets across its South Korean and Taiwanese operations, as well as its Farfetch...
Klarna and Affirm Integrate BNPL Into Stripe Payment Tokens to Capture $1T U.S. Agentic Commerce Market
Klarna and Affirm have integrated their buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) services into Stripe’s shared payment token platform. The move enables AI‑driven shopping agents to automatically offer installment plans at checkout instead of defaulting to stored credit cards. The partnership targets the “bridge‑millennial”...
OpenAI Holds Talks with The Trade Desk to Sell ChatGPT Ads and Hit $17B Revenue
OpenAI is in early talks with ad‑tech giant The Trade Desk to sell advertising on its ChatGPT platform, part of a broader push to generate $17 billion in consumer revenue this year. The company has already partnered with Criteo to launch...
Depop Increases Boosted Listing Ad Fees From 8% to 12% as Sellers Blame eBay Ahead of $1.2B Buyout
Depop announced that its Boosted Listing advertising fee will increase from 8% to 12% starting March 23, 2026. The change comes as eBay prepares to acquire Depop from Etsy in a $1.2 billion deal slated for the second quarter. Sellers have...
EBay Waives Final Value Fees on 25 Fashion and Home Items for U.S. Sellers Amid Vinted Competition
eBay has launched an invite‑only promotion that waives final value fees on up to 25 items for selected U.S. sellers. The fee exemption applies to completed sales in the baby, fashion, and home‑decor categories and is valid through March 31, 2025....
Google Sets $5 Daily Minimum Budget for Demand Gen Campaigns, Forcing Small Advertisers to Spend More
Google will enforce a $5‑per‑day minimum budget for all Demand Gen campaigns starting April 1, aiming to give its AI enough data during the 7‑ to 14‑day cold‑start learning phase. The rule primarily hits small advertisers who run low‑budget, hyper‑segmented tests,...
Cargojet Secures UPS Contracts to Offset the Loss of China E-Commerce Volume Caused by US Tariffs
Cargojet, the Canadian cargo airline, signed new service agreements with UPS to replace capacity lost after the FAA grounded its MD‑11 fleet. The move cushions a sharp drop in transpacific revenue caused by Great Vision HK Express suspending its contract...
Wix Launches Website Creation App in ChatGPT Through OpenAI Collaboration to Simplify Design
Wix announced a partnership with OpenAI to embed its website‑building application inside ChatGPT. The new app lets users generate production‑ready sites using plain‑language text or voice commands, leveraging Wix’s proprietary protocols. The feature is being rolled out globally, aiming to...
Military Strikes on Iran Delay Middle East E-Commerce Deliveries as Shipping Costs Threaten to Double
Military strikes on Iran have forced major container lines to suspend cargo bookings to the Middle East, triggering widespread delivery delays for e‑commerce giants such as Amazon and Temu. Freight forwarders warn that shipping costs could nearly double as transit...
Miso Robotics Acquires Operations Platform Zignyl to Launch AI Dashboard Zippy for Restaurant Tech
Miso Robotics, the U.S. restaurant automation specialist, announced the acquisition of Zignyl, an operations platform provider. The purchase enabled the launch of Zippy, an AI‑driven dashboard that lets restaurant operators query data through a conversational chatbot. By embedding Zignyl’s workflow...
Stay22 Lands US$122M Investment From Summit Partners to Accelerate International AI Expansion
Stay22, a Montreal‑based creator‑economy platform, secured a $122 million growth capital infusion from private‑equity firm Summit Partners. The company reported processing more than $1 billion in transactions last year, underscoring its rapid adoption among event‑driven merchants. The new funding will be directed...
Block Cuts 40% of Workforce as Dorsey Says AI Tools Have Changed How to Build and Run a Company
Block announced a 40% workforce reduction, cutting more than 4,000 jobs as it pivots toward artificial‑intelligence‑driven operations. CEO Jack Dorsey said AI tools have fundamentally altered how companies are built and run, prompting the restructuring. Despite the layoffs, the company...
UK Appoints Former Amazon Exec Doug Gurr as CMA Chair
The UK government has confirmed former Amazon executive Doug Gurr as the permanent chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Gurr, who previously led Amazon’s UK operations, had been serving in an interim capacity before his appointment. He will...
TikTok Shop Outpaces Shopee in Vietnam During Lunar New Year
TikTok Shop eclipsed Shopee in Vietnam’s Lunar New Year shopping season, seizing 52 % of the market as consumers spent a combined $2.6 billion. Metric’s analytics show TikTok’s sales volume grew at nearly twice the pace of Shopee over the six‑week holiday....
Texas Sues Temu for Allegedly Functioning as Chinese Spyware
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Temu, alleging the discount marketplace operates as Chinese Communist spyware that harvests user data for the Chinese government. The lawsuit targets PDD Holdings, accusing it of deceptive marketing and seeking substantial civil penalties. It...
Bath & Body Works Launches Official Amazon Storefront to Boost Sales
Bath & Body Works has opened an authorized storefront on Amazon, offering its top‑selling soaps and fragrances with Prime‑eligible shipping. CEO Daniel Heaf said the move lets the brand control inventory and pricing while recapturing sales lost to unauthorized resellers....
Amazon Terminates Blue Jay Robot Project to Pivot Toward Orbital System
Amazon has discontinued its Blue Jay robotic warehouse system only months after its debut, citing prohibitive costs and technical hurdles. The e‑commerce leader is redirecting resources to a new modular architecture called Orbital, aimed at smaller fulfillment centers and grocery...
Hai Robotics Files for Hong Kong IPO as Revenue Hits $189 Million
Hai Robotics, the Shenzhen‑based developer of automated case‑handling robots, announced its filing for a primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company posted 1.36 billion yuan (approximately $188.9 million) in revenue for 2024, underscoring rapid growth. It now commands more...
EBay Appoints VP of AI Transformation to Catch up in Agentic Race
eBay announced the appointment of Michelle Warvel as Vice President of AI Transformation, signaling a strategic push to accelerate its agentic AI capabilities. The marketplace is simultaneously launching a hiring campaign for specialized AI design and research roles while tightening...
Google Rolls Out AI Shopping Agents for Etsy and Wayfair Users
Google has introduced AI‑driven shopping agents that let U.S. consumers buy directly from Etsy and Wayfair within its AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app. The feature leverages Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol to handle transactions end‑to‑end. Google says Shopify,...
Loblaw Launches ChatGPT App to Enable Direct Grocery Ordering
Loblaw, Canada’s largest grocery retailer, has launched a fully integrated ChatGPT app that lets shoppers plan meals and place orders directly within the chat interface. The new offering incorporates the PC Express beta tool, enabling users to build shopping lists...
Affirm & Wayfair Expand Partnership to Launch BNPL Options in the U.K. & Canada
Affirm announced the expansion of its buy‑now‑pay‑later service with Wayfair into the United Kingdom and Canada. The partnership extends the flexible, zero‑interest payment plans that debuted in the United States last year to international shoppers buying home goods. Customers will...
ByteDance Unveils Seedance 2.0 AI Video Model with Multi-Shot & Audio Capabilities
ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, launched Seedance 2.0, an AI video generation model that can craft multi‑shot scenes with synchronized sound effects, music, and dialogue in several languages. The system builds on the company’s existing generative‑AI portfolio and is praised...
Shopify Redesigns the Shop App Home Feed for a Video-Centric Swipeable Shopping Experience
Shopify has overhauled the Shop App home feed, turning it into a swipe‑able, video‑first shopping experience tailored to each user’s interests. President Harley Finkelstein touts the redesign as immersive storytelling that puts shoppable video front and center. Early impressions, however,...
Amazon Plans $200B Capex for 2026, up From $131.8B in 2025
Amazon disclosed a $200 billion capital‑expenditure plan for 2026, up sharply from $131.8 billion in 2025. The budget targets AI compute, custom chips, advanced robotics and its Project Kuiper satellite internet service. While the announcement nudged the stock lower, Amazon’s cloud arm,...
Amazon Fined $70M in Germany for Using Pricing Tools to Suppress Listings
German antitrust regulators fined Amazon about €70 million for employing price‑filtering algorithms that demote third‑party offers deemed too expensive. The Federal Cartel Office ordered Amazon to cease using the tools that suppress listings. Amazon plans to appeal, claiming the ruling forces...
ShipTime Acquires Majority Stake in Warehowz
ShipTime Canada, a Paid Inc. subsidiary, has purchased an 80% stake in Warehowz, the on‑demand warehousing marketplace. The deal brings more than 2,500 warehouse locations onto ShipTime’s fulfillment platform, giving merchants flexible storage and faster delivery options across North America....
Indian Fashion Quick Commerce Startup ZILO Raises $15.3M
Indian fashion quick‑commerce startup ZILO secured $15.3 million in a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners. The capital will fund scaling of its 60‑minute delivery model that includes home trials and instant returns. ZILO, founded by former Flipkart and Myntra executives,...
Tower Semiconductor Builds 1.6T Optical Chips for Nvidia
Tower Semiconductor, an Israeli analog foundry, announced a collaboration with Nvidia to produce high‑performance silicon photonics for 1.6‑terabit optical modules. The new chips double data rates compared with prior solutions and are tailored to Nvidia’s networking protocols. This technology targets...
Amazon Seeks Custom OpenAI Models to Power Alexa
Amazon is in talks with OpenAI to secure a commercial agreement that would give it access to custom‑tuned AI models for Alexa and other products. The negotiations run parallel to discussions of a multibillion‑dollar equity investment in the ChatGPT creator....
CommerceX Raises ¥17.3B Series A for Retail Tec
CommerceX Holdings, a Japanese retail‑tech firm, raised ¥17.3 billion in a Series A round that combines equity and debt financing. The capital will fund an aggressive M&A strategy and upgrades to RECORE, its cloud‑based POS system for the reuse industry. Management targets...
GOcxm Acquires Emotive Technologies for AI Consumer Insights
GOcxm, a provider of retail execution and engagement solutions, announced the acquisition of Emotive Technologies. The deal brings Emotive’s AI‑powered consumer insights platform, Apex, into GOcxm’s product suite. By embedding predictive intelligence and behavioral‑science models, GOcxm aims to give CPG...
